The Rhydd (formerly Rhydd Court) is an

English country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

alongside the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

, near the village of

Hanley Castle Hanley Castle is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, between the towns of Malvern and Upton upon Severn and a short distance from the River Severn. It lies in the administrative area of Malvern Hills District, and is part of ...

, Worcestershire, about halfway between

Malvern Malvern or Malverne may refer to: Places Australia * Malvern, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide * Malvern, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne * City of Malvern, a former local government area near Melbourne * Electoral district of Malvern, an e ...

and the small town of Upton-upon-Severn. The house is now a care home.

History

The name ''Rhydd'' may have come from the colour ''red'' of the earth nearby. The house was built about 1800 and expanded in 1863. The

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s were Richard Norman Shaw, David Brandon, and Charles Francis Hansom.

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

gave the land to the Lechmere family soon after 1066. The Lechmere family kept the land from father to son to the 19th century, and from 1805 until 1915 it was the home of Sir Anthony Lechmere, 1st Baronet, and Sir Edmund Hungerford Lechmere, 2nd Baronet.Southall (1825). p. 128 From the 1970s to the 1990s, the complex was the campus of The Rhydd Court School, a facility for boys with behavioural and learning difficulties, run by the Malvern local government. Since 2005, the house has been a residential care home specialising in

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

. Its extensive grounds, now independently owned, reach the right bank of the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

, and include walled gardens with a greenhouse; they are occasionally open to the public.

People

Isabella Anne Allen lived at ''The Rhydd'' in the 1830s. In 2022, the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

found dried plants, poetry, drawings, and notes in an old book. Research showed that these were the work of Allen, who lived at ''The Rhydd'.

History

People

References

Further reading